Opera Bespoke at Chiddingstone Castle

By ofrankham

Opera Bespoke: Divas And Dramas

Chiddingstone Castle

Kent

Subtitled 'Everything you ever wanted to know about opera', Divas And Dramas promises to provide exactly that when it comes to the beautiful surroundings of Chiddingstone Castle later this month.

Featuring experienced opera singer and director Peter Knapp, the evening will include a broad selection of operatic arias interspersed with some musical history and a host of fascinating anecdotes about life behind the scenes in this most lofty of art forms.

The 61-year-old baritone will be accompanied by pianist Simon Hester and mezzo soprano Margaret Rapacioli, who told Go! what the audience can expect on the night.

"We go from the very beginnings of opera, through Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Bizet, Verdi, Wagner, all the way through to Gershwin and the 20th century musicals," she says.

"At the same time, because Peter is such a fantastic raconteur, he talks through his extensive experience in the world of opera, which often is very light-hearted and amusing. As you can imagine opera can be quite dramatic at times and some hilarious things have happened to him along the way."

Margaret says the evening will appeal primarily to a knowledgeable opera audience, but can be enjoyed by anyone.

"For an audience that has never been to an opera before it's a very amusing, light-hearted introduction and a good lesson in the history of it."

Peter began his singing career at Glyndebourne and has performed for many of the world's leading companies, including the national operas of England, Wales and Scotland.

There can be few better qualified to teach an audience how to sing opera from scratch.

"At one point Peter gives the audience a lesson and teaches them how to sing the chorus of Toreador from Carmen," says Margaret. "We don't put anybody on the spot. It's really good fun and everybody enjoys it."

Margaret herself was classically trained at the Venice Conservatoire but concentrated on a financial career in the city until she entered Channel Four talent show Operatunity in 2003. Beating 3,500 entrants to make it to the last three rekindled her interest in singing professionally.

"It basically enthused me with the bug that I had to go back to opera," she says. "I then got a place in a prestigious college called the National Opera Studio in London. Since then I've sung with English National Opera and I'm happy to say it's going very well."

She has founded her own company, Opera Bespoke, which provides opera-themed entertainment for weddings, concerts and corporate events. The company had a successful show at Chiddingstone in May and were keen to return.

"That was more of a traditional opera gala. It went very well and we had very good feedback. We thought it would be nice to do another concert there, obviously something still in the opera field but a completely different show so that there would be some variety.

"I'd say it's probably 40 per cent talking and 60 per cent singing. It should be a very entertaining and enjoyable evening."

By Oliver Frankham

Saturday November 29 at 8pm

Tickets £22 in advance only

Phone the box office on 020 8354 3112 or buy from Chiddingstone Post Office in the village